Washington, 30 March 2023 (GNP): In its most recent report on the subject, a US-backed broadcasting station reported that militants who carry out strikes across Pakistan have gotten US Arms left behind in Afghanistan.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that the proliferation of American weaponry has increased the military prowess of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch separatist organizations.
A spike in violence (in Pakistan) during the previous two years, it claimed, was brought on by this surge of weaponry.
The influx of U.S. weapons from Afghanistan has boosted the military capabilities of Pakistani armed groups like the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and ethnic Baluch separatists.https://t.co/GzdfJTs37Y
— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) March 29, 2023
In 2021, the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, leaving behind $7 billion worth of heavy weaponry, including armored vehicles, communications technology, and firearms.
Once the Western-backed Afghan government was overthrown during the turbulent U.S. pullout, the Taliban took control of the weapons, amassing a sizable war fund.
Experts and security authorities claim that certain US military equipment and weaponry have been employed by armed organizations in the neighboring country of Pakistan after the Taliban’s takeover.
The M16 machine gun, the M4 assault rifle, night vision goggles, and military communication gear, according to experts, have been acquired by armed groups.
According to Asfandyar Mir, a senior analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, “these weapons have added to the lethality of such groups,” and a “robust and in many ways growing black market” for US Arms is prospering in Pakistan.
The TTP’s access to advanced combat weaponry, according to Abdul Sayed, a Swedish scholar who studies the organization, has had a “terrifying” effect, particularly on Pakistan’s under-equipped police force.
Also Read: 3 Taliban Security Force Personnel Killed in Attack
A police official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a region in northwest Pakistan that has been the target of several TTP attacks, warned that the province was a sitting duck for extremists.
“The fact is that they can see us in the dark while we can’t. That gives the terrorists an enormous advantage”, continued the officer, who requested anonymity since he was not allowed to talk to the media and spoke under that condition.
The terrorists “picked up sophisticated arms left behind by the Americans and waged war against [the province’s] police,” according to Moazzam Jah Ansari, former police chief of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who made this statement to the media in November.
The number of terrorist incidents in the nation rose by 27% last year compared to 2021, according to the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), a research tank in Islamabad.
Of the 262 terrorist acts that occurred last year, at least 419 people died and 734 were wounded.
There aren’t many indications that the rate of assaults will decline.
According to the officials, a sniper pistol with a thermal scope was used to assassinate senior police officer Sardar Hussain Khan and two other officers on January 15 in Peshawar.
During the last two years, the TTP has released several videos documenting sniper strikes on security checkpoints along Pakistan’s western border with Afghanistan.
